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How to get enumerable or collection of values from WhereSelectListIterator

I need to write a generic method for getting distinct values and propertyName is not known in advance. I want to do it using the LINQ expression. I am trying the below way but when getting the result from SelectMethod invoke I am getting WhereSelectListIterator. I want to convert it to IEnumerable so I can call the Distinct method. But I am not to cast it to IEnumerable(as it's not implemented it). How to get Enumerable back from
WhereSelectListIterator or is there any way I can get IEnumerable directly from invoke of generic method.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace ConsoleApp10
{
public class EmployeeEqualityComparer : IEqualityComparer<Employee>
{
public bool Equals(Employee x, Employee y)
{
return x.Id == y.Id;
}
public int GetHashCode(Employee obj)
{
return obj.Id;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var employees = new List<Employee>()
{ new Employee(){Id=1},
new Employee(){Id=2},
new Employee(){Id=1}};
var values1 = employees.Select(obj => obj.Id).Distinct();
var values2 = employees.Distinct(new EmployeeEqualityComparer());
var values= GetDistinctValue(employees, "Id");
}
private static readonly MethodInfo DistinctMethod = typeof(Enumerable).GetMethods().First(method =>
method.Name == "Distinct" &&
method.GetParameters().Length == 1);
private static readonly MethodInfo SelectMethod = typeof(Enumerable).GetMethods().First(method =>
method.Name == "Select" &&
method.GetParameters().Length == 2);
public static IEnumerable<object> GetDistinctValue<T>(IEnumerable<T> records, string propertyName)
{
try
{
ParameterExpression parameterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
Expression propertyExpression = Expression.Property(parameterExpression, propertyName);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(propertyExpression, parameterExpression);
var propertyType = propertyExpression.Type;
// MethodCallExpression compareCall = Expression.Call(typeof(Program), "Compare", Type.EmptyTypes, propertyExpression, Expression.Constant(""), Expression.Constant(""), Expression.Constant(""));
//LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(compareCall, parameterExpression);
MethodInfo genericMethod = SelectMethod.MakeGenericMethod(typeof(T),propertyType);
var result = genericMethod.Invoke(null, new object[] { records, lambda.Compile() });
MethodInfo distinctGenericMethod = DistinctMethod.MakeGenericMethod(result.GetType());
var finalResult = distinctGenericMethod.Invoke(null, new object[] { result});
return null;
}
catch(Exception exception)
{
Console.WriteLine(exception.Message);
}
return null;
}
}
public class Employee
{
public int Age { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
}
}

This is working version of GetDistinctValue. Main idea that you can work with IEnumerable via IQueryable which is dynamic by default.
public static IEnumerable<object> GetDistinctValue<T>(IEnumerable<T> records, string propertyName)
{
var parameterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "e");
var body = (Expression)Expression.Property(parameterExpression, propertyName);
if (body.Type != typeof(object))
{
body = Expression.Convert(body, typeof(object));
}
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(body, parameterExpression);
// turn IEnumerable into IQueryable
var queryable = records.AsQueryable();
var queryExpression = queryable.Expression;
// records.Select(e => (object)e.propertyName)
queryExpression = Expression.Call(typeof(Queryable), nameof(Queryable.Select),
new[] { typeof(T), typeof(object) }, queryExpression, lambda);
// records.Select(e => (object)e.propertyName).Distinct()
queryExpression = Expression.Call(typeof(Queryable), nameof(Queryable.Distinct), new[] { typeof(object) },
queryExpression);
// creating IQueryable<object> from generated expression
var resultQuery = queryable.Provider.CreateQuery<object>(queryExpression);
// turn IQueryable into IEnumerable
return resultQuery.AsEnumerable();
}

Generic Expression tree with 'OR' clause for each supplied property

I have created a generic search extension method for IQueryable that enables you to search for a single property to see if a search term is contained within it.
http://jnye.co/Posts/6/c%23-generic-search-extension-method-for-iqueryable
I now want to enable the user to select multiple properties to search within each, matching if any property contains the text.
The code:
The user enters the following code to perform this search:
string searchTerm = "Essex";
context.Clubs.Search(searchTerm, club => club.Name, club => club.County)
//Note: If possible I would rather something closer to the following syntax...
context.Clubs.Search(club => new[]{ club.Name, club.County}, searchTerm);
// ... or, even better, something similar to this...
context.Clubs.Search(club => new { club.Name, club.County}, searchTerm);
This will return any golf club with 'Essex' in the Name or as the County.
public static IQueryable<TSource> Search<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, string searchTerm, params Expression<Func<TSource, string>>[] stringProperties)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchTerm))
{
return source;
}
// The lamda I would like to reproduce:
// source.Where(x => x.[property1].Contains(searchTerm)
// || x.[property2].Contains(searchTerm)
// || x.[property3].Contains(searchTerm)...)
//Create expression to represent x.[property1].Contains(searchTerm)
var searchTermExpression = Expression.Constant(searchTerm);
//Build parameters
var parameters = stringProperties.SelectMany(prop => prop.Parameters);
Expression orExpression = null;
//Build a contains expression for each property
foreach (var stringProperty in stringProperties)
{
var checkContainsExpression = Expression.Call(stringProperty.Body, typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains"), searchTermExpression);
if (orExpression == null)
{
orExpression = checkContainsExpression;
}
//Build or expression for each property
orExpression = Expression.OrElse(orExpression, checkContainsExpression);
}
var methodCallExpression = Expression.Call(typeof(Queryable),
"Where",
new Type[] { source.ElementType },
source.Expression,
Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>>(orExpression, parameters));
return source.Provider.CreateQuery<TSource>(methodCallExpression);
}
The error
If I change the number of parameters supplied to 1:
Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>>(orExpression, parameters.First()));
I get a new error:
UPDATE
I have written a post on the work discussed in this question. Check it out on GitHub too.

Here we go; you were pretty close - as I noted in comments, the key piece here is to use ExpressionVisitor to re-write the trees in terms of the single parameter you want to keep:
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
static class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var data = new[] { new Foo { A = "x1", B = "y1", C = "y1" }, new Foo { A = "y2", B = "y2", C = "y2" },
new Foo { A = "y3", B = "y3", C = "x3" } }.AsQueryable();
var result = data.Search("x", x => x.A, x => x.B, x => x.C);
foreach (var row in result)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}, {2}", row.A, row.B, row.C);
}
}
class Foo
{
public string A { get; set; }
public string B { get; set; }
public string C { get; set; }
}
public class SwapVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
{
private readonly Expression from, to;
public SwapVisitor(Expression from, Expression to)
{
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
}
public override Expression Visit(Expression node)
{
return node == from ? to : base.Visit(node);
}
public static Expression Swap(Expression body, Expression from, Expression to)
{
return new SwapVisitor(from, to).Visit(body);
}
}
public static IQueryable<TSource> Search<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, string searchTerm, params Expression<Func<TSource, string>>[] stringProperties)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchTerm))
{
return source;
}
if (stringProperties.Length == 0) return source.Where(x => false);
// The lamda I would like to reproduce:
// source.Where(x => x.[property1].Contains(searchTerm)
// || x.[property2].Contains(searchTerm)
// || x.[property3].Contains(searchTerm)...)
//Create expression to represent x.[property1].Contains(searchTerm)
var searchTermExpression = Expression.Constant(searchTerm);
var param = stringProperties[0].Parameters.Single();
Expression orExpression = null;
//Build a contains expression for each property
foreach (var stringProperty in stringProperties)
{
// re-write the property using the param we want to keep
var body = SwapVisitor.Swap(stringProperty.Body, stringProperty.Parameters.Single(), param);
var checkContainsExpression = Expression.Call(
body, typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains"), searchTermExpression);
if (orExpression == null)
{
orExpression = checkContainsExpression;
}
else
{ // compose
orExpression = Expression.OrElse(orExpression, checkContainsExpression);
}
}
var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>>(orExpression, param);
return source.Where(lambda);
}
}

Using given properties as strings

I would like to use a single, general method to retrieve an ordered list for a given string representing a property inside a lambda expression.
I know people requested this before but it didn't work for me. I tried this and it threw error:
db.Books.OrderByDescending(x => x.GetType().GetProperty("Discount").GetValue(x,null))
.Take(3);
I'm using this at the moment:
public IQueryable<Book> GetCheapestBooks()
{
return db.Books.OrderBy(x => x.Discount)
.Take(3);
}

maybe this is what you are looking for:
Dynamic Linq
With this you can write queries like:
var result = db.Books.OrderBy( "Discount" ).Take( 3 );

Simple console application.
class A
{
public int prop1 { get; set; }
public int prop2 { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static IEnumerable<T> GenericOrderByDescending<T>(IEnumerable<T> arg, string property, int take)
{
return arg.OrderByDescending(x => x.GetType().GetProperty(property).GetValue(x, null)).Take(take);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IEnumerable<A> arr = new List<A>()
{
new A(){ prop1 = 1, prop2 = 2},
new A(){prop1 = 2,prop2 =2},
new A(){prop1 = 3,prop2 =2},
new A(){prop1 = 441,prop2 =2},
new A(){prop1 = 2,prop2 =2}
};
foreach(var a1 in GenericOrderByDescending<A>(arr, "prop1", 3))
{
Console.WriteLine(a1.prop1);
}
}
}
U can pass your db.Boks.AsEnumerable() as parameter for GenericOrderByDescending<T>() method. Instead of T you should type the type of your db.Boks items. My example sorts an array of instances of class A and I've got no errors, it works fine. Did I understand you correctly?

You can try with this code
public IQueryable<Book> GetCheapestBooks()
{
db.Books.OrderBy(x => x.Discount).Take(3).AsQueryable<Book>();
}

You could create an extension method which creates the property expression:
private static IOrderedQueryable<T> OrderBy<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName)
{
PropertyInfo prop = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName);
ParameterExpression paramExpr = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "obj");
MemberExpression propExpr = Expression.Property(paramExpr, prop);
Type funcType = typeof(Func<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(T), prop.PropertyType);
Type keySelectorType = typeof(Expression<>).MakeGenericType(funcType);
LambdaExpression keySelector = Expression.Lambda(funcType, propExpr, paramExpr);
MethodInfo orderByMethod = typeof(Queryable).GetMethods().Single(m => m.Name == "OrderBy" && m.GetParameters().Length == 2).MakeGenericMethod(typeof(T), prop.PropertyType);
return (IOrderedQueryable<T>) orderByMethod.Invoke(null, new object[] { source, keySelector });
}

Can the DisplayName attribute be accessed without using MVC?

I have refactored out a generic CSV builder for List using lambda expressions to access the correct values
public static string ToCsv<TModel>(this List<TModel> list, string delimiter, string lineBreak, string valueWrap, params Expression<Func<TModel, object>>[] expressions)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
var headers = expressions.Select(m => String.Format("{0}{1}{0}", valueWrap, GetPropertyName(m))).ToArray();
sb.Append(String.Format("{0}{1}", String.Join(delimiter, headers), lineBreak));
foreach (var listItem in list)
{
var values = expressions.Select(m => String.Format("{0}{1}{0}", valueWrap, m.Compile()(listItem))).ToArray();
sb.Append(String.Format("{0}{1}", String.Join(delimiter, values), lineBreak));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
This works well, however because I am trying to move this into some common code for several projects across several servers to access. I cannot reference the System.Web.Mvc assembly
Is there a good way to access the DisplayName Attribute and if that doesnot exist, access the variable name?
My current attempt access the ((MemberExpression) expression.Body).Member.Name however it will not work if it has to convert a value to string. (ie passing an int and implicitly converting)
A second attempt of iterating over the attributes did not work for inner class (ie model => model.innerClass.property)

With a couple simple helper functions, you can eliminate all reference to the System.Web.Mvc assembly. You'll also notice in the example below that (model => model.member.property) works.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Reflection;
namespace Test
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<Class1> foobars = new List<Class1>();
foobars.Add(new Class1 { Foo = "Hello world!", Bar = -1, Skip = false, Ref = new Class2 { ToBe = true } });
string result = foobars.ToCsv(",", Environment.NewLine, "\"", m => m.Foo, m => m.Bar, m => m.Ref.ToBe);
}
public class Class1
{
[DisplayName("Foo Property")]
public string Foo { get; set; }
public int Bar { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Skipped Property")]
public bool Skip { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Reference")]
public Class2 Ref { get; set; }
}
public class Class2
{
[DisplayName("To Be or Not To Be")]
public bool ToBe { get; set; }
}
}
public static class Extensions
{
public static string ToCsv<TModel>(this List<TModel> list, string delimiter, string lineBreak, string valueWrap, params Expression<Func<TModel, object>>[] expressions)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
var headers = expressions.Select(m => String.Format("{0}{1}{0}", valueWrap, GetDisplayName(m))).ToArray();
sb.Append(String.Format("{0}{1}", String.Join(delimiter, headers), lineBreak));
foreach (var listItem in list)
{
var values = expressions.Select(m => String.Format("{0}{1}{0}", valueWrap, m.Compile()(listItem))).ToArray();
sb.Append(String.Format("{0}{1}", String.Join(delimiter, values), lineBreak));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
// Get DisplayName, otherwise fallback to Name
private static string GetDisplayName(LambdaExpression memberReference)
{
MemberInfo info = GetMemberInfo(memberReference);
DisplayNameAttribute displayNameAttr = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(info, typeof(DisplayNameAttribute)) as DisplayNameAttribute;
return (displayNameAttr != null ? displayNameAttr.DisplayName : info.Name);
}
// Can be swapped for your favourite GetMemberInfo/GetPropertyInfo utility method (there are many out there)
// Source: http://blog.baltrinic.com/software-development/dotnet/extension-methods-for-converting-lambda-expression-to-strings
private static MemberInfo GetMemberInfo(LambdaExpression memberReference)
{
MemberExpression memberExpression;
var unary = memberReference.Body as UnaryExpression;
if (unary != null)
//In this case the return type of the property was not object,
//so .Net wrapped the expression inside of a unary Convert()
//expression that casts it to type object. In this case, the
//Operand of the Convert expression has the original expression.
memberExpression = unary.Operand as MemberExpression;
else
//when the property is of type object the body itself is the
//correct expression
memberExpression = memberReference.Body as MemberExpression;
if (memberExpression == null || !(memberExpression.Member is MemberInfo))
throw new ArgumentException("Expression was not of the form 'x => x.member'.");
return memberExpression.Member;
}
}
}

Dynamic recursive lambda expressions

I want to create dynamic lambda expressions so that I can filter a list using a set of filtering parameters. This is what I have so far:
The expression is built using the methods bellow, where T is the object type of the list
public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> GetExpression<T>(IList<DynamicFilter> filters)
{
if (filters.Count == 0)
return null;
ParameterExpression param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "t");
Expression exp = null;
if (filters.Count == 1)
exp = GetExpression<T>(param, filters[0]);
[...]
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(exp, param);
}
private static Expression GetExpression<T>(ParameterExpression param, DynamicFilter filter)
{
MemberExpression member = Expression.Property(param, filter.PropertyName);
ConstantExpression constant = Expression.Constant(filter.Value);
[...]
return Expression.Call(member, filterMethod, constant);
}
I then call
List<Example> list = ...;
var deleg = ExpressionBuilder.GetExpression<Example>(dynFiltersList).Compile();
list = list.Where(deleg).ToList();
This works just as expected with an object that contains only simple types, but if there are complex types inside, the code doesn't work anymore. For example, let's say I have a member of custom type Field inside the Example class and Field has a string property Value. If filter.PropertyName would be 'Field0' (of type Field), the code would work just fine, but if I have 'Field0.Value' I would get an obvious error stating that there is no property named 'Field0.Value' inside class Example.
I tried modifying the expression building method, like this:
MemberExpression member = null;
if (filter.PropertyName.Contains('.'))
{
string[] props = filter.PropertyName.Split('.');
ParameterExpression param1 = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T).GetProperty(props[0]).PropertyType, "t1");
member = Expression.Property(param1, props[0]);
}
else
{
member = Expression.Property(param, filter.PropertyName);
}
but then I got a Lambda parameter not in scope error when compiling the expression. I sort of understand why I get this error, but I don't know how to make this work.
Bottom line is I need to make the expression building method work recursively when forming the MemberExpression. I ultimately need to obtain a list = list.Where(deleg).ToList(); that translates to something like this list = list.Where(obj => obj.Field0.Value == 'something').ToList();
I've just started working with expressions so I don't really know too much in this area, but any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I realize this is a fairly old post, but I had the exact same problem and found something close in an answer that Mark Gravell posted here. I just modified it slightly to meet my needs and below is the result:
private Expression GetDeepProperty(Expression parameter, string property)
{
var props = property.Split('.');
var type = parameter.Type;
var expr = parameter;
foreach (var prop in props)
{
var pi = type.GetProperty(prop);
expr = Expression.Property(expr, pi);
type = pi.PropertyType;
}
return expr;
}
Implementation:
var method = typeof (string).GetMethod("Contains", new Type[] {typeof (string)}, null);
var lambdaParameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TEntity), "te");
var filterExpression = Expression.Lambda<Func<TEntity, bool>> (
filters.Select(filter => Expression.Call(GetDeepProperty(lambdaParameter, filter.Property),
method,
Expression.Constant(filter.Value))).
Where(exp => exp != null).
Cast<Expression>().
ToList().
Aggregate(Expression.Or), lambdaParameter);

I'm trying to address
so that I can filter a list using a set of filtering parameters
not by using ExpressionBuilder but instead by using a generic Filter class.
public class Filter<T> where T: class
{
private readonly Predicate<T> criteria;
public Filter(Predicate<T> criteria)
{
this.criteria = criteria;
}
public bool IsSatisfied(T obj)
{
return criteria(obj);
}
}
First we need to have some classes.
public class Player
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Level { get; set; }
public enum Sex { Male, Female, Other };
public Weapon Weapon { get; set; }
}
public class Weapon
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int MaxDamage { get; set; }
public int Range { get; set; }
public WeaponClass Class { get; set; }
public enum WeaponClass { Sword, Club, Bow }
}
Then we need a list of objects.
var graywand = new Weapon { Name = "Graywand", MaxDamage = 42, Range = 1, Class = Weapon.WeaponClass.Sword };
var scalpel = new Weapon { Name = "Scalpel", MaxDamage = 33, Range = 1, Class = Weapon.WeaponClass.Sword };
var players = new List<Player> {
new Player { Name = "Fafhrd", Level = 19, Weapon = graywand },
new Player { Name = "Gray Mouser", Level = 19, Weapon = scalpel },
new Player { Name = "Freddy", Level = 9, Weapon = graywand },
new Player { Name = "Mouse", Level = 8, Weapon = scalpel}
};
Then let's create a couple of filters and add those to a list.
var powerfulSwords = new Filter<Player>(p => p.Weapon.MaxDamage>35);
var highLevels = new Filter<Player>(p => p.Level>15);
var filters = new List<Filter<Player>>();
filters.Add(powerfulSwords);
filters.Add(highLevels);
Finally filter the list by those filters
var highLevelAndPowerfulSwords = players.Where(p => filters.All(filter => filter.IsSatisfied(p)));
var highLevelOrPowerfulSwords = players.Where(p => filters.Any(filter => filter.IsSatisfied(p)));
Only "Fafhrd" will be in highLevelAndPowerfulSwords and highLevelOrPowerfulSwords will contain all players but "Mouse".

Have a look at ExpressionVisitor as described here: Replacing the parameter name in the Body of an Expression

You could generate an expression for each element in filter and combine them into one single expression using the methods below:
public static Expression<Func<T, K>> CombineAnd<T, K>(Expression<Func<T, K>> a, Expression<Func<T, K>> b)
{
ParameterExpression firstParameter = a.Parameters.First();
Expression<Func<T, K>> b1 = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, K>>(Expression.Invoke(b, firstParameter), firstParameter);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, K>>(Expression.And(a.Body, b1.Body), firstParameter);
}
public static Expression<Func<T, K>> CombineOr<T, K>(Expression<Func<T, K>> a, Expression<Func<T, K>> b)
{
ParameterExpression firstParameter = a.Parameters.First();
Expression<Func<T, K>> b1 = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, K>>(Expression.Invoke(b, firstParameter), firstParameter);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, K>>(Expression.Or(a.Body, b1.Body), firstParameter);
}